source file: mills2.txt Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 21:02:00 +0200 Subject: JI modes From: "Collins, Gordon" Greg Schiemer wrote: >What is the term Phrygian JI scale ? I presume David that you mean a mode >that begins on the third degree of a JI scale (I looked for confirmation >in Doty's primer to no avail and my past experience of the terms dorian >phrygian lydian is based on 12-TET where each of these modes is an octave >of white notes starting on D, E, F and so on). I was unaware that these >terms still apply in the world of JI. Whoa! Perhaps it's time to remind folks that Western music, at least before the 20th century, is not - repeat NOT - based on 12TET! (I'm not singling out Greg here - I've seen quite a few posts recently reflecting this assumption.) It is based on the diatonic scale and the concept of tonality without a great deal of concern for the particular tuning used. When the church modes were invented, the scale was tuned in Pythagorean tuning (3- limit JI), with only eight notes per octave: C, D, E, F, G, A, Bb, and B. (Come to think of it, the Bb might be even later than that.) Centuries later, 5-limit tuning was used, to make the thirds pure (at the expense of the D-A fifth, among other things) and more "fictitious" notes were accepted as sharps and flats. By the time mean-tone came into use, the church modes were being replaced by hexachords and major/minor scales and there were more than 12 pitches per octave in use. Well-temperaments reduced that number to 12 only in the 18th century. So the modes have almost *always* been used in JI, and *never* in 12TET! Gordon Collins gordon_collins@jhuapl.edu Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Thu, 15 May 1997 21:45 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA03173; Thu, 15 May 1997 21:45:19 +0200 Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 21:45:19 +0200 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA03171 Received: (qmail 28778 invoked from network); 15 May 1997 19:45:15 -0000 Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 15 May 1997 19:45:15 -0000 Message-Id: <970515154122_-1968027284@emout11.mail.aol.com> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu